With the self-stated goal of “simplifying Linux”, NetMAX
has introduced a trio of “Net appliance” products: WebServer,
FireWall and FileServer. You can also get all three rolled into
one, along with additional network management tools, in the
Professional version of the software. Unlike most Net appliance
makers, NetMAX concentrates on software, leaving the hardware for
the user to supply.

NetMAX makes the software available in both Red Hat Linux and
FreeBSD versions, both of which, they claim, can be installed in
under 15 minutes. As with most appliance software, common
administrative functions can be performed through a web
browser.

Figure 1.

The NetMAX WebServer can be installed over an existing Red
Hat system, or it can be installed fresh. I chose the latter
option, ordered the NetMAX WebServer, and built the following
machine to support it: AMD 300, 64MB of RAM, 2GB Seagate IDE Drive
and Intel 10/100 Pro Ethernet Adapter. All of these are well above
the listed minimum requirements of a Pentium-based processor: 32MB
of RAM and 1GB hard drive. It takes the local Chinese food place
about 25 minutes to deliver an order, so I decided to use them as a
timer. I placed my order, opened the box, and began the
installation process.

The WebServer comes with a boot disk, a CD with the software
and two manuals: Installation and User. Having done dozens of Linux
installations, I bypassed the manuals, put the CD into the CD-ROM
drive and booted the machine. The installation screen appeared,
detected the LAN card, and asked me for an IP address and netmask,
while files were being copied over to the hard drive. I entered
them and was informed I could finish the install from the terminal
or over the Web, by going to the entered IP address on port 5150.
This part of the process took about five minutes.

Figure 2.

I opted for the web installation, sat down at a nearby
machine and accessed the IP address at port 5150 in a web browser.
The admin page came up promptly, I was asked a couple of questions
about the network configuration, and the installation began. Total
time so far: ten minutes.

The only snag I ran into with this process was the WebServer
did not detect our local nameserver for some reason. I substituted
another provider's nameserver, it was detected, and the install
continued. After the install, I went back and replaced the other
provider's name server with ours, and it worked fine.

Figure 3.

Everything was done automatically; the WebServer software
formatted the drive, created the partitions and installed the
necessary services. It even automatically detected the local
Windows Workgroup name and added itself to it, sharing the root
HTML directories automatically so they could be updated easily by
anyone in the organization with proper access. While the software
is installing, the browser displays a status bar, tracking the
entire process and updating you with what is being done.

The delivery person arrived just as the machine was finishing
and getting ready to reboot. Total time: 25 minutes. While this was
not quite the advertised 15 minutes, it certainly was not too long
to wait to have a fully functioning web, mail and FTP
server.

As I ate my Kung Pao chicken, I explored the web interface to
the WebServer. I was a little disappointed to notice that the
version of Red Hat installed by the NetMAX WebServer was 5.2. A
quick check to the NetMAX web page told me the new WebServer
version would be shipping in mid-January, and as a registered user,
I would be entitled to a free upgrade. Another disappointment I had
was that the server did not come pre-installed with PHP or MySQL.
Fortunately, these were very easily installed.

Figure 4.

The WebServer software packages include Apache, with optional
support for FrontPage Extensions, Sendmail and WU-FTPD. There is
also an X Window System Client and a remote X-application
server.

The web interface is very impressive. It is a series of CGI
scripts that allow you to update and change a wide array of daemons
on the server. Our company has been using the Cobalt Network's RAQ
Servers for more than a year, so I was prepared to find similar
features with the NetMAX WebServer. Instead, I found a much wider
breadth of services.

After you log in to the WebServer, you are taken to a framed
Welcome page. From this page, you can take a tutorial of the
interface, or you can begin to make changes. On the left side of
the page is a menu with seven choices: Personal, Users, Services,
Reports, Network, Sharing and Shutdown.

Most experienced Linux administrators should be readily able
to determine what is available under each menu, but even Linux
novices should have no problem finding what they want.

Obviously, there is not space to go over the content of each
sub-menu, but some of the significant things you can do from the
web interface include set up e-mail accounts, turn the server into
a router, enable and disable remote FTP access (by default, it is
disabled from outside the LAN), add new domains and set up primary
and secondary DNS for those domains, access CD-ROM and floppies,
install new packages (RPMs) and reboot the server.

For all the many useful features the server has, the
extensive coding does have a tendency to slow it down somewhat—but
only when working within the administrative area; the actual web
server responds very quickly. Experienced users may find it quicker
to make the changes from the command line; NetMAX anticipated this,
so any changes made from the command line override changes made
through the GUI. However, inexperienced users will definitely find
that the administrative control gained is worth any latency they
may experience.

One other nice security feature is that the WebServer will
automatically log you off your administration session if it has
been idle for too long.

If you would like to get a feel for the administrative server
and what features it provides, NetMAX does have an excellent demo
on their web site. It's worth taking a look at.

Allan Liska
built his first computer when he was
12—a lovely Heathkit with a whopping 16K of memory. He started
Spectrum Computers with his wife in 1998, which has since evolved
into Priz*Net
(http://www.priz.net/)
Internet Services—all Linux-based. The important part: his first
experience with Linux was in 1995 with Red Hat 5.1. Since then, he
has been an avid Red Hat fan. He plans to keep his Windows box
around until someone ports Duke Nukem and Test Drive to Linux. He
currently runs an AMD 450 with 64 megs of RAM and Red Hat
6.1.